India on Thursday named veteran diplomat Vikram Doraiswami, currently the high commissioner to the United Kingdom, as its next ambassador to China at a time when the two countries are engaged in the process of rebuilding their relationship after a prolonged military face-off on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Vikram Doraiswami is perceived as one of the ablest senior diplomats. (ANI)
Doraiswami is perceived as one of the ablest senior diplomats who has served as the envoy to Uzbekistan, South Korea and Bangladesh before he was sent to London in September 2022.
He is expected to take up his new assignment shortly, the external affairs ministry said in a brief statement announcing his appointment as the high commissioner to Britain.
In Beijing, Doraiswami will replace Pradeep Rawat, who has played a key role in the normalisation of India-China ties since the two sides ended a more than four-year standoff in Ladakh sector of the LAC in October 2023. Since then, the two sides have revived the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage and resumed direct flights, while India has eased restrictions on both visas and direct investments from China.
P Kumaran, secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, is widely tipped to replace Doraiswami in the UK, people familiar with the matter said.
Doraiswami’s first foreign posting was to the then Indian high commission in Hong Kong in May 1994, when the territory was still controlled by the British. It was here that he learnt Mandarin at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and he was subsequently posted to the Indian mission in Beijing, where he served for nearly four years from September 1996.
In addition to his foreign assignments, Doraiswami – a journalist-turned-diplomat – was deputed to the Prime Minister’s Office in 2002 and served as private secretary to late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Doraiswami also served in India’s permanent mission to the UN in New York in 2006 and as consul general in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2009, before being appointed as the envoy to Uzbekistan in 2014. He was posted as the ambassador to South Korea in 2015 and then went on to serve as the high commissioner to Bangladesh during 2020-2022. He became high commissioner to the UK in September 2022.
During his stint in Dhaka, Doraiswami was known for his outreach to forces across the political spectrum at a time when the country was ruled by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League. After being posted to the UK, he played a key role in addressing India’s concerns about the activities of Khalistani elements in Britain and helped elevate bilateral ties as the two sides negotiated a free trade agreement, which was signed in July 2025.
At the headquarters, Doraiswami has served as the head of the division for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) in 2011, joint secretary for the Americas division during 2012-2014, and as head of the division handling Bangladesh and the Maldives in 2018. He helped set up a new division for the Indo-Pacific region in 2019 and was subsequently appointed the additional secretary responsible for international organisations and summits.